Leominster shooting investigated

LEOMINSTER — Local and state police were investigating a shooting near Pleasant and Adams streets Tuesday evening.

The victim was taken by ambulance to Leominster Hospital and transferred by Life Flight helicopter to UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus in Worcester, according to Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.

His identity and medical condition were not released Tuesday night.

According to a source and police scanner reports, the victim suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. Local and state police detectives, with a state police dog, converged on the scene early Tuesday evening, shortly after the shooting was reported about 5 p.m.

One man was quickly arrested at the scene on outstanding warrants on unrelated charges, according to a source, but no one had been charged Tuesday in the shooting.

A woman said she was sitting in her third-floor apartment on Pleasant Street just before 5 p.m. with her 10-year-old son when she heard a gunshot.

“I heard a pop and saw someone running down the street,” she said.

She said she saw one man running, stop at a black pickup truck and start talking to the people in the truck.

An ambulance arrived and “the EMTs pulled a guy out of the black pickup truck,” she said. “Everyone started running. Then I saw all the cops with the guns.”

The woman said she is aware of drug activity in the area, but in the 10 years she has lived in her apartment, nothing as serious as a shooting has occurred.

“My son said, 'Mama, now we have to move,' ” she said.

Another witness said he was in his apartment on Adams Street when he heard a gunshot. He said he ran to Pleasant Street.

“I saw three guys running on foot and a cop with his gun drawn,” he said.

Police cordoned off a block-long area from Pleasant and Adams streets to Boyle Place. They searched the streets and storm drains for evidence, and later brought in a Vactor 2100 to suction out catch basins. A Department of Public Works employee described the vehicle as a “37-foot-long Shop Vac on wheels.”